Trial ordered for state trooper charged with New Year's Day drunken driving crash

View full sizeTheophil Syslo | The Saginaw NewsSuspended state police Trooper John A. Beemer listens to testimony during his preliminary hearing today before Saginaw County District Judge Terry L. Clark. Beemer is charged with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated causing serious injury, a felony, and operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.17 or higher, a misdemeanor.

SAGINAW — A state police trooper will stand trial on a felony charge that he was driving drunk and caused serious injury to a Saginaw County Circuit Court probation worker.

Saginaw County District Judge Terry L. Clark today concluded the preliminary hearing for John A. Beemer, 44, by ruling that prosecutors showed probable cause to take him to trial in Circuit Court.

Beemer, who has been on unpaid suspension from the Bridgeport Post since charges were filed against him in July, is charged with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated causing serious injury, a felony, and operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.17 or higher, a misdemeanor.

Genesee County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Larobardiere, who handled the case for the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office, dropped a charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated-second offense because the statute of limitations from Beemer’s previous conviction has expired. Because of a conflict of interest, the state Attorney General’s Office ordered that Genesee County handle Beemer’s prosecution.

Russell Ray testified that he was driving west on Gratiot, or M-46, about 7:50 p.m. Jan. 1 when a truck southbound on Orr failed to stop at a stop sign. The front of Ray’s 2000 Buick Regal struck the driver’s side of Beemer’s 2000 Chevrolet Silverado, and the two vehicles came to a rest in the front yard of a home on the southwest corner of the intersection. Ray’s wife, Trina, 10-year-old stepdaughter, and 3-year-old son all were passengers, he said.

Ray said he suffered a broken bone in his left hand, causing him to have to wear a Velcro, removable cast for between four and six weeks. Ray said that he missed one or two days of work.

Saginaw County Sheriff’s Deputy Heather Dvorak testified that she spoke with Beemer at the scene of the crash and noticed an “odor of intoxication” on his breath and that he had “glassy eyes” and an “unstable walk.” Beemer refused a field sobriety test and a preliminary breath test, Dvorak said, but agreed to a chemical blood test.

Larobardiere, the prosecutor, read the results of that test to Clark. Beemer’s blood alcohol content at the time of the blood test was 0.17, a state police report stated, the prosecutor said.

Beemer’s attorney, William Brisbois, argued that Ray did not suffer a “significant or serious” break of a bone, which the criminal statute requires. Larobardiere disagreed, pointing to the fact that Ray’s hand was immobilized when in the cast.

“I think he described and suffered enough” to meet the statutory requirements, the prosecutor said.

Clark agreed with Larobardiere that the seriousness of Ray’s injury should be for a jury to determine.